EXPERIMENTAL FARMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 29 January 1908, Page 10

EXPERIMENTAL FARMS.

INTERVIEW WITH SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE.

(Fsou Oub Own Cohbespondzot.) AUCKLAND, January 22. Mr J. D. Ritchie, Secretary of Agriculture, is at present on a. visit to the province in order to conduct a general inspection of the many experimental farms which, ( are under the supervision of his' department. On. Friday last Mr Ritchie visited the biggest of the department's farms m the Kaipara district, where he found the effects of the web winter still very apparent, the grass in particular being somewhat backward. " A good shower or two there, however, would rectify matters in this respect, said Mr Ritchie to a Herald reporter. "To-day," he continued, "I have been looking intp several matters connected with the flax industry. There have been some complaints received 'both as regards the grading a.nd the quality of the hemp, but none of them of a serious nature; and with a little more care on the^ part of the millers any matter for dissatisfaction will be coon settled favouraibly." . Mr Ritchie will visit Wairangi, where experimental viticulture is being carried on, and he will also call at Ruakura, and then go on' to Tauranga, via Waihi, and inspect the fruit-testing station there. On Monday he will return to Ruakura with the Hon. Mr M'Nab, Minister of Lands. , "In the South Island," said Mr Ritchie in reply to a question, "it has been particularly dry lately, though things are not so bad as they were this time last year. The stock market is not in too good a condition, and - rain ie very badly needed for the grass, root, and rape orops. The ordinary • cereals will "be affected by the -idryness where they are not sufficiently advanced to keep the grain from shrivelling up. There will be a lot of light gram. I am afraid Canterbury has been the greatest 6ufferer from the continued dryness. Further soutih matters improve, though at Oamaru just before- the holidays, when I was there, the country was beginning to feel the pinch. This absence of moisture in the South Island," Mr Ritchie concluded 1 , "is naturally affecting the milk yield pretty considerably- 1 *